


The Legion of... Teenagers?

by Skittles_and_Secrets



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz, Brooklynite - Lerman/Mayer, Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Explicit Language, F/F, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Michael Mell Has Three Moms, Michael Mell Has Two Moms, Other, Post-Squip Jeremy Heere, Post-Squip Rich Goranski, Slow Burn, Superheroes, mature language
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:14:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25205290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skittles_and_Secrets/pseuds/Skittles_and_Secrets
Summary: Almost 17 years after the fall of the walls that surrounded Brooklyn, the Legion of Victory is still going strong. With shorter workdays and a day off every week, Astrolass and the rest of the Legion are happy. But smaller groups of vigilante heroes have been popping up, and these heroes aren't exactly professionals.Superhero AU from Michael's POV. You don't need to have heard about Brooklynite to understand, I'll explain most of that musical in the story.
Relationships: Jeremy Heere/Michael Mell
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> if you want to listen to Brooklynite: https://soundcloud.com/peterlerman/sets/songs-from-brooklynite-off-broadway-2015 
> 
> it was uploaded by Peter Lerman, the man who wrote most of the musical.
> 
> I believe these are recordings from rehearsals, so bootlegs (which I described them as in another story) was not the correct term for them.
> 
> Some more information about the musical:  
> https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/26/theater/review-brooklynite-a-superhero-musical-with-matt-doyle-and-nicolette-robinson.html  
> https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/brooklynite-theater-review-777668  
> https://newyorktheater.me/2015/02/25/brooklynite-review-superheroes-in-brooklyn/
> 
> The music is great and I love anything to do with musicals and superheroes, so I'm writing this. I'm also only loosely fitting the plot of Brooklynite in, it's mostly about BMC and DEH superheroes.
> 
> This is not a stepbrothers AU, nor is DEH in the first several chapters.

I stood with Jeremy and the rest of the theatre kids outside of Mr. Reyes’s classroom. It was the day after winter break and we were waiting for him to announce the spring musical. He’d promised it was something written in the last century and not written by him, so everyone was excited. 

“Alright everyone,” Mr. Reyes said, holding a large poster in his arms. “I have an announcement! The spring show will be…” he paused for dramatic effect after hanging the poster on the wall. “... Brooklynite!”

A couple people groaned. Christine gasped.

“I was born to play Astrolass! She’s the coolest superhero ever!” She squealed, making Chloe roll her eyes.

“Well, I think the Legion of Victory is a little full of themselves. A whole musical about them tearing down a wall they built,” Chloe said.

Christine looked shocked.

“The musical is about what led to the Brooklyn city walls falling, not about them falling. Besides the Legion does so much to protect everyone in and around New York, the least they deserve is a musical!”

“Ze Legion of Victory? What’s zat?” Madeline asked, adopting a horrible french accent. 

Madeline had transferred to Middleborough High during our sophomore year and had told everyone she was from France. The problem was that I’d been going to the same church as her since we were very little. So we both knew she wasn’t French. 

I entertained her delusions in exchange that she didn’t talk to me at school and that she shared a rumor whenever I needed her to. It had worked out for both of us, until recently.

“The Legion of Victory is a group of superheroes. They were the only superheroes in the world for a while, so I’m surprised you didn’t hear about them in France,” I said.

Her eyes widened.

“Nah Michael,” Jake said, jumping into the conversation, “be sensitive to cultural differences. The Legion’s made up of a couple of people. There’s Kid Comet: he’s super-fast, used to be a messenger. Blue Nixie, she controls water through a magic whistle or something, she used to be a marine biologist. There’s El Fuego, he sets things on fire, former line cook. Captain Clear is invisible duh. but I couldn’t tell you what he used to do before the asteroid. 

“And then there’s Astroman and his daughter… and her boyfriend. Astroman founded the legion, but he died a little while before the legion tore down the walls. Astrolass has the same powers that Astroman did. Flight and superstrength. Astrolass’s boyfriend, Astrolad, uses a super-suit to pretend he can fly, but he doesn’t actually have powers.”

Madeline feigned confusion. 

“What is zis asteroid?” she asked.

“The Gowanus asteroid. It gave the legion their powers,” Jake said.

“You’re not even telling her the full story,” Christine said, “Besides the people Jake mentioned, there’s a couple others that are important to understand the Legion and the musical. Avenging Angelo was a member of the Legion that went rogue and became Venge. He had the power to look into the future and see empty parking spots. He felt like the others thought finding parking spots was a bad power, and when the others didn’t let him have a position of power in the group, he quit and became Venge. He then tried to recreate the Gowanus effect to give him and a group of students superpowers so that they could destroy Brooklyn. Trey - Astrolad - stopped him with help from the Legion.

“Oh! Also, for the past few years, there’s been another superhero fighting with the legion. He goes by Nix, which is the masculine form of Nixie, so everyone thinks he’s just Blue Nixie’s son. He can also control water, so there’s actual evidence, not just add speculation on my part. Nothing’s been confirmed by the legion, though.”

I could confirm that Nix was Blue Nixie’s son. I’d been fighting with Legion under the Alias of Nix for three years now. I was adopted by my real moms as a baby, but once I realized I could control water, it wasn’t hard to figure out who my birth mother was. And, once I realized that Blue Nixie and El Fuego had been an “Item” for the past 17 years, it wasn’t hard to figure out who my birth dad was either.

But, nobody besides the Legion and my moms knew who Nix was. So if it was confirmed that I was Blue Nixie’s child, my identity would be narrowed down to maybe a hundred people. I guess Christine would just have to keep wondering.

Jeremy and Christine signed up for the first two slots on next Thursday and everyone else signed up behind them. The fall play never generated that much interest, but the Musical was full of Choir kids who can’t act and Theatre kids who can’t sing. 

“You gonna sign up, Michael?” Rich asked, handing the pen to the person behind him in line. 

“Do I look like I sing?” I gestured to myself.

“You sing in church choir all the time,” Madeline said, miraculously losing her accent.

“Wouldn’t you know,” I said.

She grabbed Jake and ran towards the student parking lot before I could expose her.

“Anyway. You don’t look like you play instruments, but you do,” Rich said.

“Yeah, and I have to teach other people who ‘play instruments’ how to play their instruments for the musical. So I’m going to be too busy to play a part.”

Jeremy hugged Christine and started walking over to me and Rich.

“Looks like I got to go. Bye,” I said.

Jeremy was finally ungrounded from the SQUIPcident and was gonna actually spend time with me. Instead of forcing me to spend time with people I don’t like just so I could talk to him, he was gonna play video games.

But the universe hated me. I should have known there was no way we’d hang out. 

Everyone’s phone dinged with an emergency alert.

“Breaking News” the alert read, “super-villain known as Fever Storm attacking Brooklyn Bridge. Legion of Victory nowhere to be found!”

The Legion worked with the police on every day except for Thurday, which Astrolass had negotiated as a day off. The only time the Legion worked on Fridays was when there was a super attack, but even then they only did it if the police couldn’t stop it.

This attack didn’t seem like a huge issue, just some fire. The police and firefighters would handle it, but the Legion would probably arrive anyway.

Before I could turn to Jeremy and apologize for having to go, he spoke.

“I can’t hang out today, my dad is gonna want me home. Sorry Mikey,” He said.

That was fucking bullshit. 

“It’s cool, I’ll catch you later,” I said as I pulled up my headphones and walked away.

At least now I could help the Legion. I ran home and changed into my super suit before calling Kid Comet. 

Kid Comet was useful in battle, sure, but he was most useful whenever anyone wanted to get somewhere fast. He was a pretty fun guy, so in the one or two seconds he took to get someone, he’d always make me laugh. Plus, he was Rich’s third cousin or something, so he knew all the Goranski gossip. It pissed Rich off to no end when I asked him about his older brother’s second girlfriend of the month.

The rest of the Legion was still no show by the time Kid Comet and I got there, but we weren’t alone.

The police had evacuated the bridge, so no civilians could be on it. But 7 superheroes stood there fighting Fever Storm. 

They weren’t very good. Water would be incredibly beneficial for this situation, but none of them could control it, so they were fighting fire with more fire. 

Literally. The shortest member of the group was facing off with Fever Storm and both were sending fire everywhere.

Another hero was creating “bubbles” or forcefield to stop the fire from spreading and keeping the others from being burned. A third was sending electricity towards the villain.

The other four weren’t using their powers much and were mostly just in the way. 

Kid Comet and I stood there watching for a little while before he turned to me.

“This is just sad to watch. You should put an end to it,” He said.

He was right, these guys were clearly new superheroes and probably had had zero formal training. 

“Alright, but snap a couple pictures of these guys for me?” I asked, handing him my phone.

It was my job to track down new heroes and villains for the Legion. Trey and Astrolass liked keeping tabs on people.

“You got it!”

I summoned the water from the East River to douse the entire bridge and all the heroes standing on it. At the same time, Kid Comet had grabbed Fever Storm, subdued him somehow, and put him in handcuffs next to a police officer. 

The seven soaking wet superheroes turned to me in confusion. They didn’t seem like they’d be trouble, but I could imagine that the police would want to arrest them.

“Get out of here,” I said.

The superheroes scrambled to get off the bridge. Kid comet came rushing back over.

“Any clue who those guys are,” I asked.

“Nope, but I got close up pictures of them. Their masks don’t cover most of their face, so I’ll bet with some digging you’ll find out who they are.”

I nodded. This probably wasn’t the first time they used their powers, so I might be able to narrow them down to a town or neighborhood. If I figured out the identities of the heroes with bad masks, I’d be able to find the others.

The reason why I was in charge of finding out identities was that I had done all of the steps needed to find someone, backward to hide my own identity. Plus, if someone broke into Legion headquarters, then they’d have access to all these other superheroes’ identities if another member did it, but since I do it at home, there’s no evidence just lying around. 

Hunting amateur superheroes was a depressing way to a Thursday night, but since Jeremy had bailed, I had nothing else to do.

I took my previous project off the bulletin board in my room and started hanging print outs of the pictures Kid Comet had taken. Sure, I could have laid out all my evidence virtually, but the bulletin board fit my aesthetic more.

After pinning up everything I got from the bridge, I started googling for stories about these superheroes. I got a few hits on a group near Wakefield New Jersey, but they didn’t have the right powers. I was on the fourth page of google and about to give up and automate the search when I finally found something worthwhile.

“7 young heroes stop cash register thief in Middleburgh New Jersey.”

The article included videos of the heroes using their powers, as well as several photos taken by spectators. The attempted robbery was in some preppy boutique on the rich side of town, where Jake, Chloe, and Madeline lived, which is why I hadn’t heard of it.

The article was from last Sunday and the next related article was from five minutes ago, meaning that this group had only been fighting for less than a week. If they’d only been working together for that long, then their display on the bridge was more impressive.

The article said the heroes were young based on their voices and the fact that one of them had on a Middleborough High spirt bracelet, so these guys clearly went to my school. Which meant all I had to do was watch and see who acted suspiciously tomorrow. But first, I had to give them a reason to act suspiciously.

Me: OMG! Hey Madeline!

Mads: I hate you Mike. 

Mads: What do you want. I’m not in a good mood right now.

Madeline was annoying and rude, but she was my friend on some level. She was the only thing that made Sunday classes bearable, so I did care beyond using her to spread gossip,

Me: Whats wrong :(

Mads: Jake bailed on our date. Based off his snap map he was with Chloe and Rich :(

Me: You can do better than him anyway. He can be a total jerk sometimes.

Mads: Yah, ur right. What did you need?

Me: Did you hear about these new superheroes? They fought Fever Storm on the bridge today and they totally go to our School.

I sent her the link to the article I found and separately sent her the picture of the one hero wearing a spirit band. 

Mads: HOLY FUCK

Mads: That’s exciting

Mads: It’s on my story

Mads: Sometimes you’re useful

Me: Im always useful

Me: ;)

Mads: I still hate you.

I sent her a :P back and decided to call it a night. I wasn’t going to be able to track these guys down until tomorrow anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said the other day I was going to write this and now I'm invested. I love Brooklynite, but it looks like it might have a fandom of two: me and the guy who wrote the show. 
> 
> Anyway, comment any suggestions, questions, predictions, criticisms, or just plain comments <3
> 
> Question of the Chapter: What's the weirdest thing you've researched for no reason?
> 
> Mine is probably types of pigeons (Maltese are my favorite), but an argument could be made for the amount of time I spent reading Wikipedia articles about coastal geography and rivers, streams, and springs.


	2. Chapter 2

I woke up to several texts from Madeline.

Mads: HOLY FUCK MIKEY

Mads: 3,000 people watched my story

Mads: That’s like all of our student body plus half of Wakefield’s

Wakefield was our rival school. Because there was only one mall between the two towns, all Middleborough drama was Wakefield drama and all Wakefield drama was Middleborough drama. 

Mads: Jake said I was dramatic for getting excited about it :(

Mads: He said I should take down my story

Me: Weirdo. What a jerk. 

Mads: Uh-huh

Looking out for someone acting suspicious was going to be harder than I thought. Jake was already being weird and I wasn’t even at school yet.

Jeremy came to pick me up, as an apology for making me walk home.

“Sorry for ditching you yesterday. Since the SQUIP, my dad’s been overprotective,” he said.

“It’s cool Jer, don’t worry about it. I get it.”

He smiled and started the drive to school.

Like I’d hoped, Superheroes going to our school had everyone buzzing. Or almost everyone.

The SQUIP Squad didn’t mention it at all, nor react to other people mentioning it. Which was very weird.

Throughout the day, this group’s popularity only grew, and I doubted the Squad would be able to ignore it for much longer. By the time the bell rang for fourth lunch, the superheroes had names that everyone in school knew.

Polyphase: the superhero who was summoning electricity. He was going to be the hardest to track down because his mask covered almost his entire face, just leaving his mouth exposed.

Invisigirl: the one who had been summoning force fields, but could also turn invisible. Her mask covered the top half of her face but left everything below her nose revealed.

Ember: He’d been fighting Fever Storm with fire. It was obvious he was a guy because his mask only covered the area around his eyes. Plus I was pretty sure I heard another superhero refer to him by “he” so I don’t think it was unfair to assume.

The rest of the team’s masks only covered the area around their eyes as well.

SonicLass could create sonic booms and other very loud noises, Melior healed fast and could heal others, Reflex could clone herself, and Counterglow could control light. The group could be incredibly powerful, but not until any of them learned how to use their powers. And the Legion of Victory couldn’t help with that until we figured out who they were.

“OMG!” Madeline started as she sat down at our table for lunch. “Did you guys hear? It looks like ze Legion of Triumph goes to our school. I wonder who zey are?”

The rest of the Squad ignored her. Only Dustin and I acknowledged her presence. I gave her a smile. 

“What’s the Legion of Triumph?” Dustin asked.

Madeline rolled her eyes.

“Ze superheroes who saved ze Brooklyn Bridge yesterday. Do you live under a rock? Dumbass,” She said, losing her accent on the last word. 

I snorted. The only person Madeline hated more than Chloe was Dustin. Dustin had first started telling people that she wasn’t French, so she made it her personal mission to call him stupid whenever she could.

“Legion of Triumph is a little bold, don’t you think? The Legion of Victory had been in action for years before they got their name. ‘The Legion of Triumph’ has only had two ‘triumphs.’ and the one yesterday was more Nix and Kid Comet than those losers,” I said.

Chloe’s head snapped in my direction. 

“They’re not losers,” She said.

I laughed. I definitely hadn’t expected that to get a rise out of Chloe.

“Yes, they are,” Madeline said before I could respond, “their masks don’t even hide their identities. Except, polyphase.”

“I bet you wouldn’t recognize them if you saw them on the street. No one has figured out who they are yet, so clearly the masks work somewhat.” 

Before Madeline or I could respond, Jake and Jeremy arrived sitting next to Madeline and Me respectively.

“I don’t know why everyone is so obsessed with these new Superheroes. I wish everyone would just shut about it already,” Jake said.

Rich and Jeremy nodded.

“It’s so annoying,” Rich replied, “there are better things to worry about.”

Rich and Jake had been obsessed with Nix just before winter break. There was no way they’re fascination with superheroes was over just like that.

“Mikey.” Madeline’s voice shook me out of my thoughts. “Watch my stuff, I’ll be back in a minute.”

Jake watched her walk away, his face scrunching into a scowl.

“How long has she been calling you Mikey?” Jake asked.

“A while. How long have you been skipping dates with her to hang out with Chloe?” I retorted.

I knew the answer already: a while. Jake, while mostly a nice guy, flitted between Madeline and Chloe whenever he wanted. He was sleeping with both at any given time, but only “dating” one. It was pretty fucked up. 

“If this is about yesterday, I wasn’t skipping our date to hang out with Chloe. I had something important to do.”

“Oh, I’m sure. It’s not like she saw you, Chloe, and Rich together on her snap map,” I said.

His eyes widened. I couldn’t blame him, I wouldn’t want to be caught lying to my girlfriend either.

“Mikey,” Jer said before I could say more, “it was important, I was there. Just drop it.”

My smile faded. Jake might not be lying, but Jeremy was.

“I thought your dad needed you home?”

“Uh oh! Looks like Jakey isn’t the only one lying!” Madeline said, coming back to the table. She started packing up her stuff before turning to me and saying in (broken) French, “ _Let’s go eat in the band room._ ”

I grabbed my stuff and followed her. The band room was the best place to eat lunch anyway. Madeline had eaten there every day while Jeremy had his SQUIP and Jake was dating Christine. All my fellow band and orchestra nerds ate there and blasted show tunes. It was always fun, and never involved drama, besides the theatrical kind. 

After lunch, I didn’t see Jeremy on my way to English. He normally walked with me some of the way. I used to him ignoring me, but him being a jerk was not a valid reason to avoid me.

English went quickly, we just had to write an essay, then I had to hold the first band practice of the spring season. The band was in charge of playing the music for the musical every year. So 10 of the school’s best musicians were chosen and learned the music to back up the performers on the stage. Since I was the only member of the theatre band that was starting their third year in the band, I was in charge.

Our band was really good and had been the saving grace of many shows. Especially since I joined.

Since it was the first rehearsal, no one was expected to know the music. Our instructor and I decided on more practice dates, and when we would work with individual actors. Our instructor then left a full hour before he was supposed to, which was why we needed a student in charge.

I led the group through warmups and we stumbled our way through any songs with little to no piano. Since I was the pianist, we’d have to wait until we had a separate conductor to play any songs with a strong piano part.

We were just about to pack up when Madeline walked into the band room.

“Mikey, I need a favor!” She called.

“Ooh! Mikey.” One kid, John, mocked.

I rolled my eyes.

“What do you need Mads?” I asked, deciding not to entertain John.

She gave me a coy smile.

“I need you to be my date to the Basketball game! Jake’s playing again, finally, so he’ll be there. He ditched me to hang out with Chloe again.” She dramatically sighed and frowned before continuing. “So now I have to get him back.”

“You could do that by getting a boyfriend who deeply cares about you instead of dragging the gay band nerd along!”

“He doesn’t know that you're either of those things! Come on, please?” She made puppy dog eyes at me.

I sighed, before relenting. 

“Fine, but you owe me.”

She smiled and pulled me out of the band room. 

“I’ll drive you home so you can change! Tonight’s theme is neon-out!” She said.

Tonight was going to be a long night. 

By the time we pulled up to the gym parking lot again, I was already tired. Part of that was we had to stop at Target to get matching hoodies since neither of us owned much neon, but I doubted I would be able to stay upbeat for another 3 hours.

The JV boys' game was just finishing, meaning that the Varsity team would be waiting outside to do a dramatic entrance. Jake’s leg had healed over winter break, so he’d be playing for the first time this season, and just in time. Next week’s Friday night game was against Wakefield. 

We sat in the student section, where there were already too many people, and watched the JV team lose. 62-4. The other team should have shown mercy, but our JV team sucked.

Regardless of the devastating loss, some rap song started blasting from the speakers with the base too high to hear any words. The doors to the gym opened and the Varsity team started their warmups. Jake was out there, but none of the other members of the SQUIP squad were present, which meant I’d have to leave with Madeline.

I opened my phone to check the time when I got a notification from Instagram. Sarah - another gossip mogul- had posted. 

“Legion of Triumph strikes again,” she posted on her story, “Six of the seven teammates were spotted stopping another robbery only twenty minutes ago. OMG.”

I read the article she linked. The robbery was at the Walgreens next to the Target Madeline and I had stopped at almost a half-hour ago. The heroes would be long gone. 

“God!” Madeline said, reading over my shoulder. “Someone could have figured out who they were! They could be anywhere in Middleborough by now! Hell, they could’ve gotten here by now.” she pouted and turned back to the court, where the teams were now huddled on the side.

Actually, they’d be just arriving. Since they went to our school, there’d be a good chance they would show up for the game. So whoever they are, they would probably walk through the doors any second. 

Someone tapped me on my shoulder, shaking me out of my thoughts.

“Mikey! I didn’t know you were coming,” Jeremy said.

“I wasn’t.” I gestured to Madeline. 

He laughed and wrapped his arm around me.

He, Chloe, Rich, Jenna, and Brooke had all just arrived. With Jeremy around, the game would be more bearable.

Besides the screaming student section, the game did end up being a lot of fun. Jeremy had his arm around me most of the night, which was great. Madeline would lean against me whenever Jake looked over, which was not great. But we won 28-24, and the 8 of us took Jake out to celebrate.

Jake and Madeline ended up “making up” at the restaurant, so Madeline was too occupied to take me home. Since everyone else’s car was full, Jeremy stepped up. 

“Sorry I ditched you,” he said when we were about halfway home.

“It's fine, I guess. I just wish you didn’t lie to me. I don’t care as long as I know why.”

He sighed.

“I can’t tell you.”

That made me laugh. At least he was honest instead of making empty promises.

“You can tell Rich and Jake though? And Chloe? Fucking Chloe Valentine over me.”

“Yes,” he snapped.

An awkward silence fell between us. 

“Oh. Okay.” I eventually replied, trying to keep the hurt from leaking into my voice.

The silence continued until he was almost at my house. 

“You got a text from Rich,” I said, reacting to his phone buzzing.

“What’s it say?” He asked as he pulled into my driveway.

“Uh…” I leaned over to get a better look at the screen. “Did you ask him?”

Jeremy snatched his phone away from me and unlocked his car’s doors.

“See you later Mikey.”

I glared at him. He had no reason to be mad at me, and he and I were going to need to talk about it. 

But that wasn’t going to happen tonight.

“See ya.”

I opened my front door and started making my way upstairs. Jeremy was being such a jerk. Ditching me for no good reason, trusting Chloe over me, and just generally acting shady. I honestly wasn’t going to let him treat me like trash again, he was gonna need a reason to be acting dodgy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment any suggestions, questions, predictions, criticisms, or just plain comments <3
> 
> QotC: What's your go-to musical theatre song when you need to get pumped up?
> 
> Bring it On! 
> 
> It's so hype. Wish I discovered it before I stopped playing basketball.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am I writing this book because I have absolutely no clue where I'm going with the other one? yep! for the record, my other book's working title was "being an adult is boring for several chapters." So you can tell how inspired I am to write it. Once I have a better idea for a plot I'll have inspiration, but y'all don't deserve being an adult is boring.

It was almost midnight, and I wanted to fall asleep as soon as I laid down, but instead, I got a call from Astrolass.

“Nix, we have work to do! The Police want us to investigate the attack on the bridge. Kid Comet’s on his way,” she said before hanging up.

I groaned and changed into my suit. Follow up investigations were pretty common, but they were arguably the worst part of the job. Vigilantes like the Legion of Triumph might not get paid, but at least they didn’t have to do these.

Astrolass and the rest of the LoV were just arriving when Kid Comet and I got to the bridge. 

“Alright,” Astrolass started, “let's review what we know now that Nix is here. Captain Clear, you can start.”

“Fever Storm was a nuclear engineer at the Indian Point Energy Center. He was bitten by a radioactive fire and woke up with pyrokinesis. His real name was Dylan Chapman. No connection to any other known supervillain that family and friends know about.”

The name rang a bell, but I couldn’t think why. 

“El Fuego and I were able to hunt down the guy's car,” Blue Nixie said, “There was a creepy note to his ex-girlfriend and directions to a building in New Jersey. It looks like a warehouse, but I have no idea what's inside.”

“Great. Nix? You were hunting down the other heroes that were on the bridge. Any leads on them?” Astrolass asked.

“There from Middleborough, New Jersey, and based off of a bracelet one of them was wearing, they go to the high school. Beyond that, the only evidence I have to suggest identities is circumstantial.”

She nodded and then we began making a plan to infiltrate the warehouse. Odds are, it would just be a personal storage unit, or some old merchandise from a business, but maybe something interesting would come up. Interesting like a missing person or an evil lair, not like an affair or tax fraud. Affairs and tax fraud were surprisingly common among supervillains.

Eventually, we made our way to the warehouse and Captain Clear went in first. There was not much of a chance I’d be needed inside, so I pulled out my phone and checked Snapchat. After checking streaks and sending my own back I accidentally opened the map.

I clicked out almost immediately, but I did get a glimpse of several other bitmojis standing next to mine. When I checked the map again, I saw that it was the rest of the SQUIP squad. 

There were just office buildings and other warehouses surrounding this building. A ways down, There was a Costco, but that didn’t seem like their kind of Friday night (it was absolutely mine though). That meant they'd have to be in the warehouse.

Which might have given me a few answers but mostly left me with more questions.

For example: What the fuck were they doing? Why did this grown man have directions to where a bunch of kids hang out? Why did this have to be done at one am? How did they think they wouldn’t get caught? Did they have any plan if the LoV crashed their midnight party?

“Ma,” I said, turning to Blue Nixie, “look at this.”

I called Blue Nixie “ma” for a number of reasons. I already had two moms, so mom and mama were taken. Blue Nixie had spent a while in the south and hated being reminded of it. And finally, It made everyone (or just El Fuego, Blue Nixie, and Captain Clear) uncomfortable when I did so. 

That was probably because while Blue Nixie had officially told me that she was mom, El Fuego had never mentioned anything. Which was also why I didn’t call El Fuego dad.

Anyway, Blue Nixie looked at my phone before turning back to me.

“You think that’s the Legion of Triumph?” 

Maybe that’s what the fuck they were doing. I hadn’t considered it before, but all of the evidence I had didn’t disprove it. 

“Yeah.” I nodded.

“Looks like we better be ready to give Captain Clear some backup,” Astrolass said.

The radio buzzed, giving us the signal to move in. 

At first, the inside seemed boring and plain. There were several large wooden crates, random boxes, and some weird retail items like shelves, but nothing of interest. 

The middle of the warehouse, behind a group of several crates, was strange though. The light above this area was broken like it had shorted out. The ground was covered in scorch marks and several objects were moved into awkward positions. 

“Were the vigilantes practicing?” Blue Nixie asked.

“I can only assume,” Captain Clear said from behind me, making me jump. “No one was here when I got here, but the burn marks on the ground were still warm. They must have jumped out a window when they heard me come in.” 

That wasn’t likely, considering that I’d seen their bitmojis placing them in the building while Captain Clear was in here. I opened Snapchat again and checked the map. Chloe, Christine, Brooke, and Jenna were now across the street, but Rich, Jake, and Jeremy were still inside.

I showed my phone to Blue Nixie and she nodded.

“We know you three are still in here,” she said

No one moved. Snapchat could be misreading their GPS signal, but I doubted it. They were probably hiding behind a crate hoping we’d give up and leave.

I nudged Kid Comet.

“Dude. I’m pretty sure that’s your cousin,” I said quietly.

He sighed, and groaned, before checking his own phone.

“Richard! Stand up, I know you’re fucking in here. I can see your location!”

There was a soft “Fuck” from behind a crate and then Rich stood up. Jake and Jeremy followed soon after. Their masks were off and the three of their faces were red. They stared at the ground, unable to meet our eyes.

“Damn, they really are just teenagers. Good intel Nix.” Astrolass patted me on the back before turning to my friends. “Look. We don’t want teenaged vigilantes running around trying to fight dangerous supervillains. So, it is my responsibility to tell you to stop. Go home and pretend to be normal kids. Believe me, it will make your life easier.”

The three of them nodded. They still hadn’t looked at us. Jeremy opened his mouth to speak but Astrolass cut him off.

“Still, something tells me you aren’t going to listen. You seven are going to go out there and get yourselves killed fighting a superhuman who is way stronger than you, or knows your weaknesses, or knows your secret identities or something. So it is also my responsibility to make sure that if I know you're gonna fight, that at least you know how to do it.”

Finally, my friends looked up, eyes wide. 

“Nix will train you. No crime fighting until he says you can.”

That was news to me. Regardless, I kept my face neutral. The more I emoted, spoke, or moved, the more of my identity I revealed. 

“Whe-Where should we meet you?” Jeremy asked.

I thought for a moment. I’d have to scout for buildings that don’t have security systems, I’d have to find a way for them to get there without being spotted, I’d have to get there without being spotted. Not to mention the extra precautions I’d have to take to hide my identity.

“I’ll contact you,” I said finally.

Astrolass spoke to them a little more before she dismissed all of us. Which left me with no clue of how to get in touch with them.

After Kid Comet dropped me off, I started working. It was almost 4 am, but now I couldn’t sleep. I ended up choosing a secluded area in the woods near the school. There was a pond there, which would help me greatly. Plus, The warehouse they’d been using clearly wasn’t an option - Fever Storm could find them. 

Speaking of Fever Storm, I couldn’t figure out why his name sounded familiar, or why he’d been chasing the Legion of Triumph. I searched for hours before conceding and passing out on my bed.

My mom woke me up after what seemed like no time at all.

“You have a church group meeting in half an hour! Michael! I told you to set your alarm!” She yelled through my door. 

I pulled on some jeans and my hoodie before opening the door.

“Sorry, mom.” I kissed her on the cheek and made my way downstairs to finish getting ready before Madeline came to pick me up.

Church group barely counted as a “church” group. It was usually a couple people meeting up at a Denny’s. Madeline and I would meet up with some Wakefield kids and cause havoc for the poor waitress. 

It was fine though, because one girl Zoe Murphy, was super-rich. She tipped for the entire group at about 35%.

“Hey Zoe,” I said as Madeline and I sat down at the table. “Where’s Alana?”

Alana Beck was a really sweet, but socially anxious girl. She’s had the most obvious crush on Zoe since like 7th grade, but Zoe’s remained oblivious.

“Picking up Jared.”

Jared Kleinman was Jewish. He just liked free Denny’s, so he was part of our Catholic church group.

“God, I hate that kid. How are you doing, Zoe?” Madeline asked.

“Just fine.”

Zoe’s brother had killed himself. He hadn’t even left a note, instead, he had a stolen letter from a kid who had a crush on Zoe. 

Connor was a dick, but it clearly still affected Zoe. She only acted like her old self when Alana was around.

“Sup fuckers,” Jared said as he and Alana sat down. “Or should I say ‘bonjour mademoiselle?’”

“Hon Hon Hon, fuck you,” Madeline responded, putting on an overexaggerated french accent.

“May I take your order?” Poppy, our usual waitress, asked.

The five of us looked at each other. Poppy was so nice, she wouldn’t mind our shenanigans.

“Actually yes,” I said, opening my menu. “What would you recommend? This is our first time eating here.”

“Pancakes and Hot Chocolates for everyone. Got it.” She didn’t mind, but some days she wouldn’t humor us. 

She took our menus away but came back to our table before heading to the kitchen.

“Sir, this is for you,” she said as she set a kids menu and crayons in front of Jared.

“Jokes on you. I’m using this.”

She patted him on the head and walked away.

We talked about a lot of pointless Wakefield drama and about how some ladies in our parish haven’t been kneeling for the entire Eucharistic Prayer. Eventually, someone brought up superheroes.

“I can’t believe the Legion of Triumph goes to our school! This is proof that Middleborough is better than Wakefield!” Madeline said.

I snorted. Wakefield had better test scores, higher musical assessment scores, and their sports teams usually destroyed ours.

“You know, Wakefield has a team of superheroes too,” Zoe said.

Madeline threw her head to face her.

“I haven’t heard anything about that.”

“Because Michael or Jenna haven’t sent you anything. But these guys are cooler than the Legion of Triumph - which is a stupid name by the way. These guys stopped Fever Storm several days before any Middleborough folks had heard of him. Oh! And they didn’t need help from professionals,” Zoe replied.

Madeline dramatically gasped and picked up her phone to scour the internet for proof.

“Damn. You really came for the Legion of Triumph. And I agree, it’s a stupid name,” I said.

“You’re a traitor!” Madeline declared.

I made a mental note to look for these other vigilantes. There were a couple of news articles I’d read Thursday night about them, but they didn’t seem all that interesting. It was worth keeping an eye out, but not worth putting energy in. 

“Pancakes!” Poppy said as she set down our plates, shaking any thoughts of superheroes from my mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope y'all didn't think I'd let the mystery last forever. Subtlety is not a specialty of mine, so I'm sure there wasn't a huge surprise in this one. 
> 
> QotC: favorite genre of music? 
> 
> does 2012 pop count as a genre? 2012 pop is the best! Payphone, Call Me Maybe, Somebody that I used to know, Etc. Bop after Bop after Bop was on the radio! The entire Red album came out! The upbeat vibe of all the songs was great!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Taylor's dropping an album so I'm dropping a chapter.

On Monday at school, Jeremy seemed on edge. The whole SQUIP squad was, but especially Jeremy. They were having a hushed conversation at lunch and were so preoccupied that they didn’t even notice me approaching.

“Do you think he’ll try and contact us here?” Chloe asked.

“It seems unlikely. Why wouldn’t he have done it already?” Rich responded.

“Maybe they’re just fucking with us?” Jeremy said.

I sat down next to him.

“Who’s fucking with y’all?” I asked, making the seven of them jump.

“No one,” Brooke said.

The rest of the group frantically agreed. 

It hurt that they didn’t trust me, but I guess I could understand. In all fairness: I hadn’t told any of them that I was Nix. Still stung, though.

“I’m sure,” I said, not wanting to push an unimportant issue. “You guys learned the audition song yet?”

Chloe huffed.

“Well I started, but there isn’t accompaniment online. I can learn it acapella, but since we’re not singing it that way, it’s pointless to keep practicing.”

“I’ll record the accompaniment later if you really need it,” I said.

The conversation quickly moved on from auditions to the musical itself. I jumped into the discussion when relevant, but mostly I just sat there lost in thought.

Sometime this week, I’d have to figure out how to get my friends a message, without them figuring out I was Nix. There was also no time in my schedule, so I’d have to fit training, working, practicing for the musical, and setting up the tech for the musical in every day. 

Junior year was going to be harder than I thought.

After lunch, Jeremy and I had Physics together. We had a lab to teach us about motion, so we’d have the whole period to talk.

“I’m sorry about Friday. And Thursday, I shouldn’t have lied to you,” Jeremy said.

“It’s cool,” I started, “just… don’t lie to me in the future. If you want to hang out with Jake and Chloe over me, that’s fine. Just be honest.”

He looked taken aback.

“It’s not that I wanted to hang out with them over you. It’s just… never mind.”

“Okay, whatever Jer.” My voice was unintentionally tinged with sadness. I hadn’t realized how upset I was about him lying to me until he kept lying.

“Mikey…” He glanced around before pulling me into a quick hug.

“Let’s just get back to work,” I said, hiding my blush.

The atmosphere between us had lifted a little, and we actually had fun doing the lab. About a half-hour before the bell was going to ring for dismissal, the principal came on the loudspeaker.

“Attention. There is an ongoing supervillain attack nearby. We have been told by the school board to go into lockdown mode. Thank you for your cooperation.”

I groaned. Not only would I be stuck probably after school, but I wouldn’t be able to help the legion.

Once the class setup for the lockdown, Jeremy and I sat together under our lab table. After a few minutes, I ended up leaning against him.

When I checked, the news said that it was an explosion-controlling supervillain lighting up a warehouse. The whole thing gave me a really bad vibe, plus the Legion of Victory could definitely benefit from another water-based hero. But I was stuck at school. I was about to give up and just relax against Jeremy when I got an idea.

“Miss Barker? May I go to the bathroom?” I asked. 

“Are you just going to go home?”

I looked her dead in the eye. She valued honesty and was a pretty chill teacher. There was no way she’d mind.

“Yes.”  


She sighed.

“Don’t get caught. Say you’re from Mr. Thompson's class if you do.”

I smiled and said “thank you” as I grabbed my bag and left the room. Jeremy seemed offended, but I didn’t really care. Once I got to my car, I changed into my suit and texted Kid Comet.

When I got to the warehouse, I realized what gave me the bad vibe. It was the same place my friends had been practicing using their powers just Friday night. Clearly, Fever Storm was not the only villain who had an issue with them.

Blue Nixie’s voice pulled me out of my shock.

“Nix! We need help subduing this guy. Most of the water in here has evaporated, I need you to find a way to douse the building. Kid Comet and Astrolass have a plan from there,” she said through the coms.

“Gotcha.”

Looking around the street, I spotted a fire hydrant down the road and got to work. Once I summoned a large enough quantity of water, I began extinguishing the larger flames.

“I’ve put out a lot of fire, I’m about to just drench the whole building.”

“Got that,” Kid Comet said.

I let the water gush into the building and saw a blur as Kid Comet came zooming by. Most supervillains were super easy to get rid of once the full legion was assembled and Crimson Bomb was no different. 

Another way he was like other villains: we’d have to do an incredibly boring follow up on him.

“I hope you were planning on training those kids here,” Astrolass said, landing next to me.

“I’m not that dumb. If Fever Storm could find this place, I knew other badies could,” I said, “I just don’t know why they would, though. It’s not like these guys are particularly interesting…”

She looked at me. 

“I’ll see what I can find out. Do you have any idea how you’re going to train them? I kind of sprung that on you at the last second.” 

“Uh… almost.” 

Astrolass knew me pretty well. There was no way in hell she thought I had anything planned out.

“These guys are your friends right?” I nodded. “Then I’d suggest two things. One: Get a burner phone so that you can text them. And two: give the message to them yourself. Not through a note or as Nix, but as you. If they know you're in on it, they’ll trust you more. Just say you're an intern at headquarters or something. I’ll back you up if anyone doesn’t believe you.”

I smiled.

“Will do. Thanks.”

Kid Comet brought me back to school before the rest of the students were dismissed. Once I changed back into my civilian clothes I made a plan.

Target would sell a temporary cell phone that I could renew a plan for every month. Jeremy would probably come over if I asked him to, so I could talk to him then and pretend to be my own boss. He’d communicate to the rest of the SQUIP squad and then lunch wouldn’t be awkward anymore and I’d done what Astrolass asked!

My plan went downhill once I bumped into Jeremy and Rich at Target.

“Where’d you go during physics?” Jeremy asked.

“I felt like it,” I said.

Rich looked at Jeremy and laughed.

“Your car stayed in the parking lot, and you weren’t in it,” Rich said, “so what the fuck were you doing?”

I looked at him. He had this smirk on his face that just screamed “I know what you were doing.” 

There was no way he  _ actually _ knew, but I was curious and whatever he said would give me an out.

“Well, what do you think?” I asked sarcastically.

His smirk grew into a shit-eating grin.

“Dustin Kropp left my English class at around the same time you left. Since his car was gone, but yours wasn’t, I just figured.”

I shook my head.

“You are worse than Chloe, Goranski. That being said, I will neither confirm nor deny that Dustin and I were together,” I said.

Jeremy made a face.

“Gross. I didn’t need to know that.”

What an asshole. He told me everything about his (largely nonexistent) sex life, but the second I imply I have one, he gets upset. Dick move.

“Whatever, what are you doing here? Don’t you have a piano song to record?” Rich broke the awkward silence. 

“I’m just picking something up for my boss,” I said, getting an idea.

Rich furrowed his brows.

“I didn’t know you had a job. Where do you work? And how the fuck do you have time for it on top of everything else?”

“I’m an intern at the Legion of Victories headquarters.”

Their eyes widened. Jeremy’s jaw dropped.

“Uh… What do you do there? Like who do you work under?” Rich asked, fidgeting with his sleeve.

“I work with Nix. He needs a burner phone to train the new superheroes, so I’m just picking it up for him. I better go. Catch ya later,” I said, walking towards the back of the store.

Jeremy whispered “fuck” as I walked off. 

Once I got to the tech section, I grabbed the most basic phone I could find and set up a temp plan with the assistant there. Step one was done. 

After getting home, I quickly recorded the audition accompaniment and sent it in the group chat. I also spent two seconds searching for it online, found a video, and sent that in the group chat as well. 

Since Jeremy was out with Rich, he probably wouldn’t drop everything and come over, so step two was going to require more thought. 

In school the following morning, Jeremy gave me an awkward “hello” before walking past me. Since we usually talked before homeroom, that was weird. 

He made his way to Christine and turned his back towards me, sending a sharp pang of pain through my body. I hid my hurt and began heading to my homeroom class.

I’d thought Jeremy was being an asshole about the whole superhero shit, but maybe not. Maybe he was genuinely mad at me. We still hadn’t talked about anything that happened on Friday, and incidents were starting to pile up now.

Shaking away the thought, I got ready for the day ahead. I could tell already, it was going to be a long one. 

At lunch, the entire table grew quiet as I approached. Madeline was leaning against Jake and her face was bright red from laughing. Dustin looked away when I sat down.

“What’s up?” I asked.

Madeline stopped giggling for a second and turned to me.

“Well Rich mentioned what you and Dustin were doing yesterday, and Dustin confirmed it. I didn’t think you were zat kind of guy, Michael,” she said, breaking back out into giggles.

“What, you didn’t think I was gay?” I snorted before continuing. “I absolutely am, don’t get me wrong. But I wouldn’t sleep with Dustin if my life depended on it.”

There was a scoff from next to me as Dustin registered my statement.

“What about somebody else’s life, emo? What if Jeremy’s life depended on it? Would you then?”

It was weird for him to press the issue, but that really just solidified my position in my mind.

“Jeremy can handle that himself. No fucking way am I sleeping with you. Like ever, dude,” I responded.

There were very few things I wouldn’t do for Jer, but sleeping with Dustin was one of them. I would literally crawl through hell for him, but I would get close to Dustin's dick for no one. 

“That’s harsh.” Dustin wiped fake tears from his eyes. 

The conversation at the table gradually picked up, but I mostly stayed out of it. Even though he was sitting next to me, Jeremy didn’t speak to me the entire lunch. 

By the time the last bell rang, I knew that my original plan of alerting the “legion of triumph” had no hope of working. I’d have to restructure it, and quickly. The longer I waited to start training, the closer they got to going back out and getting themselves killed.

After the final bell, I took a moment in the bathroom. The student parking lot would be crazy for a while, plus I hadn’t had a moment to just think for a while. 

Since Jeremy was clearly avoiding me, talking to him wouldn’t work. Jake and Rich were possibilities, but they didn’t trust me all that much, so they’d probably ignore me. I could pass a note, but there's a good chance they’d track it back to me.

Before I could come up with another plan, two other people entered the bathroom.

“Look, Rich. I’ve got basketball practice in a half hour. I don’t have time to hear some conspiracy theory,” Jake said.

“It’s not a conspiracy. Micheal  _ told _ me and Jeremy that he works for the Legion. Nix has a phone, so we should probably expect a text or something. We should listen to the Legion, not break their trust before they’ve given it to us!” Rich replied.

Jake crossed his arms.

“If people are getting hurt, it’s our responsibility to help. I’m not just going to sit by while the Legion of Victory strings us along.”

“That’s not what’s happening! They’ll contact us soon. Just wait a little while longer. If Michael trusts them, they can’t be messing with us. Don’t be stupid!” Rich’s voice was high and desperate. His lisp, which he worked hard to hide, was slipping through on every word. 

“Of course. Because Michael trusts them, we all have to. Do you think Michael understands this situation? Do you think he knows?-”

“Knows what?” I interrupted, stepping out of my stall to wash my hands. 

Both their jaws dropped. After drying off my hands, I looked at them expectantly. They stayed quiet, eyes wide in shock.

“See you later, I guess,” I said I walked out.

Once I made it down the hall, I broke down laughing. The look on their faces was not something I was going to forget easily. Plus, they’d given me the perfect solution to my problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment any suggestions, questions, predictions, criticisms, or just plain comments <3
> 
> QotC: favorite hobby?
> 
> Sewing... I'm getting pretty good at making square-shaped pillows. Beyond that is iffy, but I'm good at square-shaped pillows...


	5. Chapter 5

After I got home, I quickly made a new plan. While all I had to do was send them a text, I knew that I should cover my trail better than that. If someone found this phone, just texting my friends would be highly suspicious.

So, I texted myself from my other phone so (in case my one of my friends saw my phone) they wouldn't suspect my identity. Then I finally made contact.

Me: meet me at Spatny Pond at 7:00 PM

Ember: all of us?

I replied “yes” and got ready to meet them. After shoving several items in my backpack, I realized I was going to have a problem once I showed up. 

The “riends” rich had written on my bag was still bright as when he wrote it in September. I didn’t have time to erase it, so I’d have to go without a bag for now. 

In reality, it was probably better without equipment at first. Once I brought out actual supplies to train them with, they’d be in more danger of getting hurt. Just sparring against each other and learning basic control over their powers would be enough for now.

Pulling on my super suit, I said goodbye to my moms and carefully made my way through the woods. 

The pond was empty when I arrived. I took a moment for myself, just enjoying the quiet. From this point going forward, I was directly lying to my friends.

And honestly? I was okay with that. Everyone would be safer this way.

If someone knew that they were aware of my identity, they’d be huge targets. It was one thing to be a part of a new group of superheroes running around protecting New York and New Jersey. It was another thing entirely to be a part of the most renowned group of superheroes in the world.

My friends had stopped a couple of robberies and people were already after them. The Legion of Victory had been involved in multiple international events and stopped large scale terrorist attacks. It isn’t hard to imagine the number of people who would love to have a way to hurt me.

Plus, it was kind of fun to know something they didn’t.

Shortly before 7, the SQUIP squad finally arrived. They were dressed in their full costumes, but only Rich brought a bag. I stood in the dark watching them for a moment.

“None of us saw the text besides you, Rich. How do we know you’re not lying?” Chloe asked, holding out her hand. “Give me your phone.”

“No! He texted me. Just trust me,” Rich said.

Jenna reached out and took Rich’s phone out of his bag’s pocket. 

“Holy crap. He didn’t want us to see the text because he and Dustin were texting. Chloe look at this!” Jenna announced.

Chloe laughed, harsh and cruel.

“Dude, I wouldn’t even have noticed that text if you weren’t so suspicious about it!”

“Chloe. Be quiet. Someone could hear us,” Christine whispered.

“Wait, what does the text say?” Brooke asked.

Rich’s face was bright red. He was staring at the ground, avoiding eye contact with the rest of the group.

“Just that he and Dustin are totally hooking up,” Chloe said, her voice just shy of a shout.

I rolled my eyes and decided they’d embarrassed Rich enough.

“Invisigirl is right,” I said, stepping out of the shadows, “you should be quiet, someone could hear you.”

Chloe’s face fell as I faced her.

“Frankly, you should be embarrassed. If y’all are going to be a team, you need to act like it. Harassing a teammate because he has a better sex life than you is not the way to do that.”

“I have a great sex life,” Chloe replied, voice indignant.

“I don’t give a shit.” I turned to the rest of the group. “Furthermore, y’all should not be having conversations about people you know while you’re in costume. That’s just asking for trouble. Understand?”

They nodded, looking like scolded children.

“Great. First: we’re clearly going to need some rules. One: I do not care about your personal lives. At all. Leave me out of it. Two: we are going to start exactly at 7:00 every night. If you don’t show up or text by 7:05, I’ll assume you’re not coming. You should do the same for me. Three: always come in full uniform. You won’t be using your powers for a while, but just in case, it’ll be good to have a disguise.”

Jake looked up in surprise.

“What do you mean we won’t be using our powers. Isn’t the whole point of this to learn how to use our powers?” he asked.

I shook my head. 

“No. The whole point is to learn how to not die. Using your powers will be a part of it, but there are other things to learn too. Actually, that brings me to rule four: trust me. When I ask you to do something, just do it. You can ask questions, but don’t waste too much of 

Chloe snorted. 

“Because your time is so valuable.”

I ignored her interruption.

“Rule five: when I ask you a question, answer honestly. Unless you’re asking about something confidential I’ll do the same. Got it?”

Everyone except Chloe nodded. 

“Alright. Let’s get started.”

First, I figured out the fighting experience they had. Rich had wrestled for a season, and Brooke had taken a personal defense class, but no one else had formal training. 

With help from Brooke, I got them started with basic defensive positions. Sure, knowing how to disarm someone would be useful, but not dying was the first step. 

No one had trouble with the positions, but everyone seemed bored. 

I sighed.

“Is there a problem?” I tried to keep my voice steady, but annoyance crept through.

“This is stupid,” Jake said, “we can already fight. We don’t need to be trained by a teacher. I bet we could take anything you threw at us!”

When they were training me, Astrolass and Trey would often describe training other young superheroes. Usually, they were overconfident and too bold for their own good. The definition of cocky. That was what got them killed. The ones that survived quickly learned that they had a lot to learn. 

Trey had said: “Superheroes are like electricians. That sounds dumb, but it’s true. There are old electricians and there are bold electricians, there are no old bold electricians. The same goes for superheroes.”

I’d taken that lesson to heart, but it was hard to learn it on your own. 

“Okay.” I moved into a defensive stance. “Come at me.”

Jake’s eyes widened.

“Come on. If you think you don’t need this, then prove me wrong. Come at me,” I said.

He took a few steps back and then ran at me. I braced myself. He reached out, trying to hit me. From my stance, I grabbed his extended arm and used it to flip him. 

“Right. Let's get back to learning how to defend ourselves, yeah?” I turned to face the others.

Jake jumped up from his spot on the ground. Crunching leaves underfoot, he ran at me again. Before he could touch me, I grabbed him and pulled him over my shoulder, knocking him back onto the ground.

“Slow down, Wolverine. You won’t be sneaking up on anyone anytime soon. Just get back to work.”

We worked through a few more positions. Everyone was still bored, but no one stepped out of line. I was going to introduce a quick defensive move when my burner phone started ringing. I recognized the number as Blue Nixie.

“Oh hey, Ma. What do you need.”

Someone gasped. Probably Christine.

“There’s been an incident out near you. In wakefield. El Fuego and I are on our way there now. I’ll text you the address. Meet us there,” Blue Nixie said before hanging up.

I sighed and turned toward the SQUIP squad. 

“I have to go. Practice is over for the day. Practice at home, we’ll meet back here tomorrow.”

“Was that Blue Nixie?” Christine asked, practically jumping up and down.

I laughed and nodded, smiling at the wild grin that spread across her face.

“Are we allowed to practice with our powers?” Jeremy asked.

That made me pause for a second. They definitely needed practice, but some of their powers were very dangerous. I wouldn’t be able to cover for them if they burned their houses down.

“Yes, but you and Ember should be especially careful. Practice turning things off or extinguishing flames more than summoning energy. Don’t set anything on fire.”

They smiled at me and began making their way back through the woods. I sighed and started walking to the address Blue Nixie had sent. It looked like I’d be out for a while longer.

The good thing about being a superhero was that I could function on less sleep. So these long nights affected me less. Sleep was still nice, though.

Blue Nixie and El Fuego were waiting outside when I arrived at the abandoned office building. 

“We got an anonymous tip that there’s something happening in this building. Something to do with your friends. We don’t know what it is, but Astrolass sent us to investigate.”

I nodded and we started exploring the building. 

Missions with just El Fuego and Blue Nixie weren’t common. Normally Captain Clear or Kid Comet came along, but on rare occasions, I was sent on missions alone with the two of them. 

Which was incredibly awkward.

Everyone in the Legion knew that El Fuego was my father. Trey had even done a DNA test to confirm it, but my parents both refused to acknowledge it. Which made working together incredibly difficult. 

The old office corridors creaked as we searched for anything out of the ordinary. By the time we were climbing the stairs to the 5th and final level, I was tired and annoyed.

“I think the tip you got was just some kind of distraction,” I said.

El Fuego sighed. 

“I’m getting that too.”

“Stop whining, boys. We still have more rooms to check,” Blue Nixie replied.

We trooped on. Blue Nixie and El Fuego took the rooms on one side of the hallway, while I took the other. Even though there were two of them, I was clearing rooms much faster than they were. I was at the end of the hallway while they were still in their second room.

Deciding not to think about the implications that had, I opened the door to the final office. Like the other rooms, there was a desk with a computer and a few pictures. The building had been abandoned last year after a fire revealed serious structural issues, so anything in the building was abandoned. 

Unlike the other rooms, though, the computer in this office was still running. Electricity had been shut off to this building a while ago, so this computer had to have been running off of a generator.

“Hey,” I called down the hall, “I think I found something.”

They came running in, faces red and their hair messed up. 

“Sorry, we were just-”

I interrupted Blue Nixie. “I don’t want to know.”

She nodded sheepishly and walked around the desk to get a good look at the computer.

“There’s a lot on here, you better come get a better look.”

The desktop was covered in folders, each given a name. Jeremy Heere, Brook Lohst, Rich Goranski, etc. The entire SQUIP squad (including me) had a folder, plus the Legion of Victory. I actually had two folders, one titled Micheal Mell and one titled Nix.

Blue Nixie clicked on the Nix folder several dozen documents popped up, including one called “DNA test results confirm - Nix is the child of El Fuego.” This caused both of my parents to look away. 

“How would they have that information?” El Fuego asked.

I stifled a laugh. It was only a matter of time before we were faced to address the issue, but he was still beating around the bush.

“Trey ran the test. They must have hacked our computer system.”

“That’s not possible. Trey said only a quantum supercomputer could do that,” Blue Nixie said as I clicked through the folder some more.

The folder was full of information obviously taken from the Legion databases. There was no answer besides us being hacked, but Blue Nixie had a point. This 2011 dell desktop was not a quantum computer.

When I opened the “downloads” tab, the answer became abundantly clear. The tab was full of video, taken from several different angles, of me. At the bridge, at the warehouse, and in the woods. The problem was obvious.

“SQUIPs,” I said, “I should’ve known.”

“What are SQUIPs?” El Fuego asked.

“I briefed the Legion on them back in November. They’re incredibly powerful computers that implant in people’s brains. Super Quantum Unit Intel Processors. They’ve been around since at least 1988. I didn’t think they were actually Quantum, but here we are.”

The floor creaked below us and the building shook a little.

“We’d better go. Let’s get this computer to Trey.”

When we arrived at Legion Headquarters, the air was tense. 

Our computers were full of confidential information, and information about the legion. The only remaining recipe for Brooklynite (our one weakness) was stored in our system. A hacker with malicious intent could bring the whole country to its knees.  _ Maybe even all of human civilization. _

And I would be willing to bet this hacker wasn’t benevolent.

The night dragged on as Trey started analyzing the computer. For a while we all sat there in silence, waiting for others to answer our emergency call. Once Astrolass and Kid Comet came back from their mission, the air of tension broke some.

“If this is really a quantum supercomputer, then there’s no way we’re the only place they’ve hacked. All the confidential stuff is not our problem. The Brooklynite formula is concerning, but if Trey was able to figure it out on his own, so could a supercomputer,” Astrolass said, sitting down in the debriefing room with us.

“The only truly troubling thing,” she continued, “is that they could figure out your identity. Between you being here all the time and receiving a paycheck from us, more than any intern would, you're suspicious. Plus, we don’t have other interns your age. But I think I have a cover for that: Social Media Manager. What do you think?”

On one hand: it could be a fun job that provided a decent alibi. It would be a better excuse than just “I’m an intern” and I could actually put that on college apps. 

On the other hand: I knew nothing about running a social media account and it would be one more thing to fit into my schedule.

Before I could answer, Trey slammed open the door. 

“Nix, I need you in here.”

Four hours later, I was finally walking out of Legion Headquarters. The hackers had not figured out my identity, and I was officially Social Media Manager, so now they never would. 

The hackers _had_ figured out my friend's identities, but they all had SQUIPs, so that wasn’t surprising. 

What was surprising was that the hackers were following another group of vigilantes. Since they were just operating out of Wakefield and hadn’t come into the city, I hadn’t been interested in them. But if the SQUIP was tracking them, then I should be too.

Which left me with two tasks: find the new vigilantes and keep both groups alive. 

Piece of cake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment any suggestions, questions, predictions, criticisms, or just plain comments <3
> 
> QotC: favorite candle scent?
> 
> Anything Christmas. If it has Christmas on the label, I'm smelling the fuck out of it.


	6. Chapter 6

This piece of cake may have been bigger than I expected. 

By the time Thursday rolled around, I had made no progress on finding the identities of the Wakefield heroes and the SQUIP squad had their heads so far up their own asses they wouldn’t listen to me when I gave advice. 

To add insult to injury, they completely ignore Madeline, Dustin, and I at lunch. 

So, as I was walking to auditions, I was fuming. It was not a good idea to piss off your pianist before an audition, especially when he knew your weaknesses as a singer.

But rather than be a bad friend I just sucked it up and played well. 

Christine and Jeremy both nailed their auditions, to no one’s surprise. The rest of the SQUIP squad (bar Chloe) were decent, about what you’d expect for a school play. Chloe didn’t care, and it was very... evident in her singing and monologue. 

Everyone else was… pretty bad. There were lots of choir girls who couldn’t act and lots of theatre girls who couldn’t sing. And to be fair to the girls, there were lots of guys from both groups who couldn’t do either. 

I just kept playing and tried not to react to anyone’s performance. 

By the time auditions got out, it was well past 7 and the entire SQUIP squad was still at school. Once Mr. Reyes had asked me for my opinion, I started walking to my car to go home.

Jeremy stopped me right as I unlocked the door.

“Hey, Mikey!”

Taking a deep breath, I looked at him.

“Whatcha need?” I asked.

“Do we…do we have practice today?”

He awkwardly smiled.

“You tell me. Is it after 7:05?” I said, “besides, I’m pretty sure Nix is trying to get out of training y’all, after what you did yesterday.”

They’d been acting like a bunch of teenagers, which they were. But still, they’re superheroes too, and should at least try to act like it. I, as Nix, had told them to be more careful and that they were in danger, and they hadn't cared. They just kept fucking around and not listening to me. 

To top it all off, Rich set me on fire at the end because Jake and Chloe were teasing him about sleeping with Dustin. He’d gotten upset and tried to hit Chloe, I stepped in, and before I knew it, we were both on fire. 

That was the exact reason I’d picked a spot next to a pond. But, he should have controlled his temper and they shouldn’t have been talking about their personal lives in costume.

“Fair point…” He sighed. “I’m sorry to bother you. I’ll catch you later.”

He turned on his heel and started walking away.

“Wait, Jer-bear! Do you need a ride home?”

He gave me a wide grin.

“Put your stuff in the back, come on!” I opened my car door for him.

The ride home was really comfortable. The awkward tension that had been following us for the past few days seemed to be gone.

When I stopped at his house, he even gave me a hug before getting out, which left me with a strange warmth in my stomach as I drove away.

There was a light blue VW Buggy in front of my house as I pulled up, meaning that Madeline had decided to stop by.

She was waiting for me in my room, dramatically draped over the bed.

“Jake broke up with me,” she said.

When she looked up at me, her eyes were red and her nose was running. I grabbed tissues and sat down next to her.

“What happened? Did he say why?” I asked, helping her gently wipe her face.

“He did.” She sniffled. “He said ‘it’s for your own safety’ whatever the fuck that means. I’m pretty sure he’s been cheating on me with Chloe anyway, but that just makes it hurt more!”

I pulled her against me and let her sob into my shirt. I’d been dealing with this exact situation every other month for the past year and a half. It’d usually be best if I just let her cry and waited, he’d be back with her in another month. 

This time though, I’d have to actually be a good friend. Jake had let the whole superhero thing go to his head and might be able to not hook up with girls willy nilly. That’d be an amazing turn of events for Madeline, she might be able to get a boyfriend that treated her like a human being. I’d just have to convince her of that.

“Hey, It’s okay... You’re better off without him. He’s a jerk.”

That made her sob harder.

“And only jerks like me! I’m never gonna find anyone better. The only other guy who likes me is you, and you’re gay.”

To be fair, Jared liked her too, but he was also gay, so that wasn’t going to help much.

“Lots of other guys like you. Besides, it’s not like the friends you have now are the only friends you’re gonna have for the rest of your life! It’ll be okay,” I said.

She sobbed against my chest for several more minutes. Eventually, she sat up and wiped her nose with a tissue again.

“I don’t want to talk about my life anymore. What’s happening in yours? Maybe your lack of one will make me feel better.”

Madeline was a good person. She’d cry to me and talk about her life, but she wasn’t completely self-centered. To some degree, she cared.

“I have a life.” I laughed. “I gave Jeremy a ride home after auditions, that’s two lifey things in one day.”

A mischievous smile spread across her face. 

“Jeremy huh? Anything happen there?” She asked.

Not realizing what she meant, I answered: 

“He gave me a hug… wait a second. No, nothing happened there.”

She winked at me.

“A hug is something, but if you don’t want to admit it, I’ll pretend it’s nothing.”

Madeline had been trying to get me to ask Jeremy out since November. After Halloween, we’d gotten pretty close, and once she’d told me she really liked Jake, she weaseled the name of my crush out of me.

“It’s not something!” I said, “two guys can hug and it can be just friendly. I hug Rich all the time. Besides, Jeremy’s the straightest guy I know.”

“Actually? You’re such an idiot! Jeremy’s like the GAYEST guy I know, besides you, and Rich… and Dustin… and Jared, but that’s not important. He’s at least bi, probably gay,” She said.

“Just because... what? He’s feminine? Mads, he’s had, several girlfriends. Including you!”

In December, after Jeremy and Christine had decided to stay friends, Madeline and Jeremy had dated for a solid two weeks. It was really uncomfortable to have my two best friends dating, especially since they both said they were doing it out of pity.

Madeline rolled her eyes. “Because that was the epitome of a relationship. We only had sex like three times, that doesn’t mean anything,” She said.

“That's actually a lot for a two-week relationship…”

“It’s not.” She scoffed. “Every other relationship I’ve been in has been a lot busier than that one. But still, he’s totally bi even if ‘having sex with girls’ doesn’t fit into your criteria of a gay guy.”

“I’m pretty sure ‘having sex with girls’ fits into very few people’s criteria of a gay guy.”

Before she could give me a snarky remark back, her phone buzzed.

“I’ve gotta go, it’s my mom. Catch you later, Mikey.”

She kissed me on the cheek before leaving. 

As soon as she pulled away, I grabbed my laptop. 

Running off of about 3 hours of sleep and a half a cup of coffee, all I wanted to do was take a nap. But I had a job, and that meant I had responsibilities, which was annoying, to say the least.

The Wakefield superheroes were better at keeping things under the radar than the SQUIP Squad had been. There were only a handful of news stories about them, all of them recent. 

I printed out the articles and as many grainy CCTV camera pictures of these guys, I could find and had started pinning them up to my board. When I mapped their area of activity, I found that they didn’t have a real central neighborhood they focused on. Maybe it was just the fact that I had seven data points, or maybe they were deliberately covering their tracks. 

They stuck to the Wakefield area, but they hit all over it. They’d stopped crime at 3 Starbucks and both of the Walmarts! Now that is range. 

Deciding that the internet wasn’t going to provide me more answers, I pulled out my notebook and wrote down all the information I had on each of them. 

After I added a quick mock-up of each hero’s suit and the information I could find about them online, I called it a day. To figure out anything else, I'd probably have to hack some security cameras and maybe even set up a wifi detector. 

Of course, as soon as I had a second to rest, someone had to come along and ruin it. My phone buzzed with a notification.

“Hey Trey,” I said, as I picked up my phone. “What do you need?”

“Astrolass & I have to go deal with the situation in Russia, but someone should keep analyzing what we got from the SQUIP. Are you up for it?”

I groaned. It’s something that I really wanted to do, but it was already late and I knew it’d be a several hour investments. But if I didn’t analyze it, the only information I would get about it would be Trey's summary a few weeks from now.

“Yeah, I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Fantastic. See you then,” He said.

“Hey, wait a second, what’s the situation in Russia?”

He hung up before I could get an answer.

Astrolass and he were long gone by the time my uber dropped me off at Headquarters. Kid Comet was waiting for me next to the secure computer we’d transferred the hacker’s files to.

“What the fuck is the situation in Russia?” He asked me.

I laughed. It was a very Trey move to just leave and not give anyone any real information. At least I wasn’t the only clueless one.

Kid Comet sat down with me and we started looking through files and programs. There was a lot of video taken from the SQUIP Squad, up until Tuesday night, of course. A handful of pictures from their social media, and one picture of Jeremy sleeping in the hospital. Weird, and a little concerning, but not all that dangerous.

There were also several files in the squad’s folders that were encrypted beyond all hope of ever reading them. They just required a passcode, but it’d take even our computers a while to crack them all through brute force. 

Luckily, most of the files were accessible so looking through them would be easy. Well, not easy - there was a ton of material to look through - but possible. 

A couple of hours and a bunch of paperwork later, I didn’t have much new information besides a more complete understanding of the scope of this hack. What they had from our computers was scattered among hundreds of folders, making it next to impossible to see if they had what we were worried about - the recipe for Brooklynite.

Eventually, Kid Comet forced me to go home, which was probably for the best. I barely made it to my bed before passing out. 

Friday passed quickly, and before I knew it it was time for band practice. The cast list would be out next week, so we practiced the songs that we’d cover with our first actor - Astrolass. 

Even though the musical was cheesy (and left out the best legion member) the songs were total bops. Key to the City was one of my top three songs, but all Astrolass songs were great, so it made rehearsal largely unpainful. We were just putting away our instruments when Jake came rushing in.

“Micheal, Jer said you know how to work the gym’s sound system?” I nodded in response. “Great, cause the guy who was doing it- Ryan -disappeared during JV half-time.” He grabbed my hand and dragged me away. 

Basketball games were not my thing, and sitting courtside next to a speaker definitely wasn’t. I quietly weighed the pros and cons of being a good friend before deciding just to go with it.

“I’m blasting High School Musical, just so you know,” I said, sighing as Jake and I walked into the gym.

The stands were absolutely full, which wasn’t shocking for rival week, but still sucked. Wakefield’s student section seemed to have already started a fight with our’s and the JV game hadn’t even finished yet. It was going to be a long night.

The volunteer scorekeepers sat on the bench next to me, and to my surprise, Zoe was one of them.

“Since when do you care about Basketball?” I asked her.

“I don’t, which is why your team was okay with me helping.”

I nodded and started fiddling with the sound to get it right.

Our JV team ended up getting absolutely obliterated with a score of 79-1. They made one free throw, and the other team seemed to be running new plays against them. It was another tragic and embarrassing showing, but no one expected much better, anyone good was bumped up to varsity. 

As the team walked off, I started playing some Post Malone song and just sat back. Making a Spotify playlist, and plugging a phone into an aux cord was not as hard as the other sound guide made it seem. 

The first half of the game was decent. Jake was a strong post and made a ton of 3-pointers, but Wakefield was playing dirty. Our team might have been pushing a bit much, but the Wakefield boys were tripping our players and flopping, and the ref didn’t care. By the time the clock rang at the end of the second quarter, I was seething.

Our team went back to the locker room, but Wakefield had their huddle right in front of me. 

“Their super tall post, the one that keeps blocking me, he’s limping a little. If something were to happen to his left leg, I’d bet he’d be out of the game for the night,” their point guard said.

“Bro, I ain't fucking with him, he literally looks like a superhero.” Zoe sat up at that and the Wakefield player continued, “plus, he only hurt his leg cuz he was pulling his friend out of a fire, you’re just a dipshit, David.”

The rest of the team agreed, and I felt bad for judging them before another chimed in with “we should go for the other post, he’s got some sort of medical thing on his arm, I bet if we bumped it, it would hurt like hell,” and all of a sudden my guilt was gone.

Jerks are gonna be jerks. 

I quickly texted Jake that his bud should get his device wrapped, and queued up the team’s re-entrance song. I’d searched the entire first half but I found something I liked for it - a bass boosted version of _Get Your Head in the Game_. No one in the crowd would notice, but it’d be a small payback at Jake for breaking up with Madeline. 

I glanced at Zoe’s phone for a second while waiting for our team to get back. She was looking at the Vigilante activity map some dude in New York made. It was a pseudo live map that showed where possible vigilante activity was happening. It had never been successfully used to track someone down, but I knew many groups used it to avoid suspicion. 

It was a little strange that she was looking at it, especially since she’d seemed so uninterested in superheroes in the past, but everyone has their hobbies. 

Wakefield played dirty the second half of the game too, but at the end of the third quarter David the Dip tripped and hurt his arm, so he had to sit out. He was their team’s strongest scorer, so it was smooth sailing from there. We finished 43-36.

The SQUIP Squad went to go meet him by the locker room. I decided to just go home and not make things awkward, plus Zoe needed a ride.

We stopped by the theatre to make sure all the tech stuff had been put away correctly on Thursday, but before we could make it to the booth we heard a crash from the dressing room.

Zoe and I frowned at each other before going to investigate. 

The dressing rooms were the sketchiest part of the school. There was a long hallway separating them from the stage that's only purpose appeared to be collecting mold. One dim light caused creepy shadows on the wall.

It was honestly a place of nightmares.

When we finally made it to the end of the hall, Zoe swung open the girl’s room and gasped. Ryan and Madeline were standing in the middle of the room, half-dressed and making out. 

“Gross,” I said, closing the door.

I heard Madeline scream as Zoe and I walked away. 

I guessed that solved the mystery of the missing sound guy.


End file.
